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Sunday, May 12, 2013

My 500,000 Drachma Bill

I came back from our trip to Greece with lots of little trinkets and souvenirs and I would say of those my favorite item would be this piece of Greek currency. I present a 1944 bill worth 500,000 drachma. These were produced during the German and Italian occupation of Greece in World War II that caused hyperinflation in the economy. It got so bad that bills in denominations as high as 100,000,000,000 were produced.

After Greece was liberated the drachma was reevaluated at the rate of 50,000,000,000 to 1 and these bills became worthless. My particular bill itself isn't worth too much in the collector's market as there are literally millions of them around but I like it as a reminder of the events of World War II and the idea of having 500,000 drachma in my pocket.